Misti Day, VP, Operations and Operational Accounting and Founding Board Member, WEA
As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, it is important to focus, not only on our country’s future, but on the amazing people that make up our history. We all know the stories from the history books of the great men of the Continental Congress and the soldiers fighting for our freedom on our fields and around the world. Then there were the titans of industry that used innovation and creativity to make the American dream a reality.
But woven through every chapter is another story, one of women who refused to accept the limits placed upon them and, in doing so, expanded what America could be.
They were not a movement. They were individuals. Women separated by centuries and circumstances, yet bound by a common thread: a love for our country.
When her husband was in Philadelphia and Paris and London building the foundation of our great union, Abigail Adams, like so many other women, kept the family farm running alone while raising their children. The letters between John and Abigail Adams give us so much insight into the struggles facing the families during the American Revolution, but they also show the love, support and guidance that Abigail gave to John throughout their lifetime. In a letter to John regarding the laws he was helping to write, Abigail asked that he “remember the ladies, and be more favorable to them than your ancestors.” Though he loved his wife, John Adams dismissed her request, and so began the fight for women’s place in history.
As the country moved into the controversial times leading up to the Civil War, a young Harriett Tubman escaped slavery then returned numerous times to get her family. She led dozens of people to freedom along the underground railroad and never lost a passenger. Harriett made her place in history as an icon of courage and freedom.
The Civil War did not spare the home front — it consumed it. While battles raged across the country, women stepped into roles no one had prepared them for, holding families and livelihoods together with little more than determination. As the war moved closer to her home in Washington, DC, Clara Barton took it upon herself to nurse the wounded. The “Angel of the Battlefield”, as she was called, later helped over 200,000 soldiers reunite with their families at the end of the war before founding the American Red Cross in 1881. She started a movement of women and men helping those in need during wars, storms and tragic events that live on today.
Women continued to show their strength and grit while making their mark on American history.
Susan B. Anthony was arrested in 1872 for the act of voting, and she turned her trial into a national stage. She lobbied tirelessly for women’s right to vote, yet she died fourteen years before the 19th Amendment passed — proof that true pioneers rarely live to see the full harvest of their work.
During World War II, over six million women answered the call to step into the workforce to take on roles in manufacturing. They built planes, tanks and ships to support the war effort. Over 70,000 women joined the military to serve as nurses in field hospitals and hospital ships all over the world.
And the stories go on and on. These women did not wait for their husbands or fathers to tell them what to do, they did what needed to be done for good of our country. They laid the path for the women of today, and showed us the importance of stepping up and stepping out.
Please join Women’s Energy Alliance as we celebrate these and other incredible women in American history over the next few weeks.
May God continue to bless these United States.
Here is the link to join, https://checkout.square.site/merchant/ML130TMGHW0FD/checkout/IG6AAMYZX2UW2I64UJYGRPJY
